Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Need for Speed: Most Wanted is a multiplatform racing video game developed by EA Black Box and published by Electronic Arts. It is the 9th game in the Need for Speed series. The game reintroduces police chases into a large body of the game's street racing-oriented gameplay with certain customization options introduced in the Need for Speed: Underground series. It is possible that this game's plot is somehow linked to Need for Speed: Underground 2 as the word "Bayview" was mentioned once. The game is succeeded by Need for Speed: Carbon which serves as a sequel to Most Wanted. Most Wanted was released for PC, PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox and mobile phones. An Xbox 360 version was later launched to coincide with the consoles release in 2006. Another version of Most Wanted was released for the PlayStation Portable, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS entitled "Need for Speed: Most Wanted: 5-1-0". Altough the 5-1-0 title only appears on the PSP version, the features seen on the GBA and DS version are from the PSP version. Plot The opening of the Career Mode sees the player arriving in Rockport with a BMW M3 GTR following Mia (played by Josie Maran). The player is then pulled over by Sergeant Cross' Chevrolet Corvette C6.R at an intersection. Cross notices the Player's car and proceeds to talk to explain that the police are cracking down on street racing in Rockport. Cross and his partner get called to a chase in progress. Cross uses his car key to scratch the player's M3 GTR in a display of frustration of being able to arrest the player. He then comments on the M3's new "pinstripe". Races seems to be in the player's favor until a group of "cheaters" led by the game's antagonist Razor (played by Derek Hamilton) sabotages the player's engine and seizes their car. The player is then arrested by Cross without a ride resulting in the player being released due to a lack of evidence. Mia picks up the player and then informs the player about Razor's plans for Rockport. She then helps out the player by giving them a choose of "starter car" so they can work their way up the Blacklist (a group of drivers most wanted by the Rockport Police Department) and eventually beat Razor. The final rival challenge sees the player race against Razor. The player reclaims his M3 GTR but Mia reveals that she is actually an undercover police officer. Mia throws the keys to the player and yells at them to go. Razor is taken into custody and the player is pursued by the entire Rockport Police Department under the command of Cross. The player manages to slip to leave Rockport by jumping his car over an incomplete bridge that Mia points out to the player in a phone call. Cross issues a 'Most Wanted' status over the player and lists them in the National Most Wanted List. Need for Speed: Carbon's storyline acts as a sequel and takes place just after Most Wanted. Notable Characters Protagonists *Player *Mia Townsend *Rog Antagonists *Razor *Sergeant Cross *Cross' Unnamed Partner *Any other Blacklist Member Gameplay Free Roam The entirety of Most Wanted is set in the city of Rockport during the day with some occurrences of rain that can impact a car's handling. Rockport consists of industrial, urban and rural areas. Large territories are connected by highways. In Most Wanted it is also possible to drive in remote forestlands. Free roam is limited to career mode only. The player can freely cruise around three districts of Rockport and may become involved in a police chase. Outruns are no longer available as well as AI street racers in free roam mode. For navigation, a GPS system is available for use. Game Modes Career The career mode in Most Wanted is not based on levels like in Need for Speed: Underground 2. Instead players need to rise up in through a Black List list represented by a Most Wanted sheet in the Rockport Police Department. During the career mode players can freely purchase and tune any car featured. The maximum amount of vehicles a player can own at once is seven. Blacklist - The player has to climp up a so called Blacklist in order to advance in the single player game. The Blacklist lists the most notorious racers in the city of Rockport, where the player has to beat pursuit records (Milestones) achieved by a rivalling Blacklist driver, reach a required amount of event wins and reach a certain bounty amount before they can challenge a blacklist racer. Rap Sheet The Rap Sheet lists a players statistics in the fashion of a Rockport Police Department database. There's also a top ten of several categories such as pursuit length, cop vehicle disabled and highest cost to state. Reward Cards Reward cards are obtained by a player after beating Blacklist racer. Players can choose from six reward cards; the first three being marked with question marks whilst the other three contain tuning upgrades. The ones marked with question marks include money rewards, extra impound strikes, coupons and most importantly a pink slip to the rival's car. The player can only select two reward cards and cannot undo their choices. Challenge Mode Challenge Mode includes 68 events in which the player is tasked with either beating a targtet time in a Tollbooth event or beating a target within a pursuit. The player is given a vehicle suited to the challenge in order to create a differing racing experience for the player. New challenges are unlocked as the player completes the career mode and previously unlocked challenges. Players also will be able to drive certain vehicles that aren't allowed in other gamemodes such as traffic and police vehicles. Quick Race Most Wanted players can instantly get into races by selecting Quick Race. Players can select a race track and event type in which to participate in. They can also select their desired vehicle, amount of laps, traffic amount, amount of rivals and rival difficulty. Additional tracks, modes and vehicles will unlock as the player progresses through the career mode. Race Modes *Circuit - Players compete with rivals in closed circuits with a set number of laps. *Sprint - Point A to Point B races. *Drag - Short and straight courses with some or no curves. The winner is the player that reaches the finish line first. Drags can only be played with manual transmission. *Lap Knockout - Systematically the same as Circuit events except that players that finish a lap in last position will be eliminated. *Speedtrap - Players have to achieve the highest collected speed record. To build up a speed record players have need to drive through Speedtrap cameras. *Tollbooth - Tollbooth races are similar to Checkpoint events, where players have to get from one tollbooth to another before their time expires. Both the Speedbreaker ability and Pursuit Breakers are available for the player to use at any time. Any race mode can be played with up to four players (except Tollbooth). On 11 August 2011, the online service for the PC and Xbox 360 version of Most Wanted will be shut down.Most Wanted Online Service Pursuit Mode Police chases have been integrated into certain racing sessions. The police deploy vehicles and tactics to either slow down or halt the player's car. Players may drive several police cars in the Challenge mode but they are solely used in checkpoint races. Most Wanted pursuits are more intensive and challenging compared to previous titles. Police chases become more difficult depending on what vehicle the player is driving, their current career progression, pursuit length and style of driving. Additional police vehicles will join a pursuit after all currently engaged vehicles have been disabled. This is represented to the player as a Backup Timer. Players can use Pursuit Breakers to disable police vehicles. Each pursuit breaker can only be used once by a player in a single pursuit. Cars Need for Speed: Most Wanted marked the return of supercars which were absent in the previous Underground games. Muscle cars increased in numbers although a large amount of available vehicles were tuners. Customization Tuning overall is not as extensive as seen in the Underground games. The game is more focused on the action of racing and police chases. Most Wanted is the only game in the franchise to feature part exchanges, which are available to both types of customization. Performance Customization Lightweight and ECU tuning modifications were dropped in Most Wanted. Fine-tuning is no longer as comprehensive as in Need for Speed: Underground 2 and can be only done in free roam mode from the pause menu. Junkman parts also appear which are special car parts that can be won from beating Blacklist racers. Visual Customization Many visual customization options seen in the last two games were cut from Most Wanted. It is only possible for players to equip Bodykits, Rear Spoilers, Rims, Vinyls and Window Tints. The speedometer of a car can still be modified. Visual modifications can be changed to lower a car's heat level. My Cars Players can pick any vehicle and modify it with unlocked parts without the exchange of ingame credits. These vehicles cannot be used in career mode but can be used in Quick Race and Multiplayer modes. Car List There are a wide range of vehicles although the beginning of career mode only offers four relatively low performance vehicles. If the player has a gamesave from Need for Speed: Underground 2 then the game will thank the player for playing it and will add a bonus of $10,000 to their bank. Special Versions Black Edition A special collector's "'Black Edition'" edition of Most Wanted was released in celebration of the Need for Speed series' tenth anniversary and in conjunction with the release of Most Wanted. The Black Edition features additional races, bonus cars and a special challenge. The Black Edition also came with a special feature DVD that contains interviews and videos relating to the game. Every Need for Speed title (except Nitro and World) after Most Wanted was released with a special collector's edition. Need for Speed: Most Wanted: 5-1-0 Need for Speed: Most Wanted: 5-1-0 is a variation of Need for Speed: Most Wanted released only on PSP. It doesn;t feature any form of Free Roam drving but follows a similar design as Most Wanted. It includes "Tuner Takedown" which allows players to play as the cops and bust racers. The DS and GBA versions of Most Wanted feature many of the features present in Need for Speed Most Wanted 5-1-0 Soundtrack Trivia *The event "Blacklisted" from Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010) appears to refer to the Blacklist in Most Wanted. The event sees the use of Chevrolet Corvette Z06 Police vehicles in reference to Sergeant Cross' C6. Although the event may refer to the Mercedes-Benz Black Series that the player has to use. *Sergeant Cross's Chevrolet Corvette C6.R differs in cut scenes and gameplay. The Corvette featured in cut scenes is a Chevrolet Corvette C6.R although the car used ingame pursuit has the same body model as other Fedeal Interceptor police cars. *Rog says "Look what Underground let loose. Let's see how you do well in daylight" when the player first encounters him. Rog also says at a later point of the game - "People as far as Bayview are throwing cash down on this." These are undeniably references to the Underground series. *The BMW M3 GTR featured in the game and its cover art were also recreated in real-life by the SPEED Channel television program Tuner Transformation. They used a BMW 330ci E46 and upgraded it with M3 GTR performance parts as well as with customized vinyls and body parts to the likeness of the in-game car. The finished car did not completely resemble the M3 GTR featured in Most Wanted. *Players with saved game data from Need for Speed: Underground 2 will be given an additional $10,000 at the start of the career as well as a message thanking them for playing Need for Speed: Underground 2. Videos 350px|left See Also *Tracks in Need for Speed: Most Wanted References Category:Need for Speed Series Category:Games